ROYAL BELUM – THE LAND BEFORE TIME

Malaysian authorities are working on opening-up the country’s oldest and largest state park to the public… little by little.

With Belum literally meaning “Land Before Time”, Royal Belum State Park is still one of Asia’s best kept nature secrets. It is part of Malaysia’s largest and oldest forest reserve – Belum Temenggor – in the northern part of the Malaysian Peninsula. Being contiguous with the smaller Bang Lang National Park and Hala-Bala Wildlife Sanctuary in South Thailand, this makes the entire area one of Asia’s largest biodiversity basins. Along with the Taman Negara National Park, Belum Temenggor is one of the oldest rainforests in world, dating back over 130 million years.

Opening up the park to the public entails treading a fine line between ensuring the protection of the local environment, while enabling people from around the world to experience this unique place that gives a true sense of “nature in the raw”. This activity is being carefully piloted by the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority

While in 2012, the Malaysian Government declared Royal Belum State Park a “National Heritage Site”, the park has now been submitted as a potential UNESCO World Heritage site.